The performances of Andres Romero in the last few weeks have been truly remarkable! It is always exciting when a new talent arrives, and when the young Argentine hit 10 birdies in the final round of the Open at Carnoustie of all places, to come withina whisker of taking the Open Championship, it was safe

to assume that this was an exceptionally gifted youngster. However, to follow that up the following week with your first Tour victory in the Players’ Championship in Germany, is a sign that he has the qualities to be a true champion. Tiger may well need to start assessing the strengths of the Puma!

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The fuss being made about the problems that Martin Kippax, Chairman of the R&A’s Championship Committee, experienced during the international final qualifying for the Open at Sunningdale yesterday is nothing short of astonishing.

The facts were that Mr. Kippax was faced with a golf course that was extremely wet, on a day where more rain was expected, coupled with the enormous challenge of staging a qualification event to the world’s biggest Championship only a couple of weeks away.

Not unreasonably, Mr. Kippax decided that the pin positions should be on the highest point of the green to avoid areas that could collect water and become unplayable. In conditions that are as wet as those experienced yesterday, it would also not be unusual for the greens to be a little slower than usual. However, when play began it became clear that the hole location on the 4th hole at Sunningdale, an uphill par 3, with a green that slopes considerably from back to front, was unplayable. If the reports I have read are correct, this was spotted almost immediately by an R&A observer, and by the time the third group out had reached the 4th, witnessed by Mr. Kippax himself. He then decided to watch one more group before deciding that the hole had to be moved to another spot. It seems to the Bug that he acted very quickly to rectify the situation, and indeed his lack of hesitation enabled the event to be completed, and avoided the extreme difficulties that rescheduling would have created.

The fact that Mr. Kippax had to turn up on national radio this morning to explain his error would suggest to me that one or two golf journalists are envious of their colleagues on the football desk, who can spend hours writing about genuinely farcical circumstances almost on a daily basis.

No doubt that these same journalists will be enjoying the hospitality, and the outstanding facilities provided by the R&A for the press at Carnoustie later this month. They will be starved of any controversy as the event will run immaculately, and they will have to rely on dramatic golf for their stories. Fortunately for them, and for us, with the event at Carnoustie there is a fair chance that this real drama may ensue, and we wont have to endure such pathetic sensationalism!

The Bug

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